ASSOCIATE PRESIDING JUDGE KARA L. PETTIT
Judge Kara L. Pettit was appointed to the Third District Court in September 2014 by Governor Gary R. Herbert. She currently serves full time in Salt Lake County. She is the Associate Presiding Judge for the Third District. She serves as co-chair of the Judicial Council’s SB270 Debt Collection & Housing Division Steering Committee. She presides over the Third District’s consolidated Debt Collection and Eviction calendars, along with Judge Charles Stormont. She also presides over the Eviction HOME (Healing Opportunities to Mentally Excel) Court Pilot Program in the Third District. She is a member of the Utah Supreme Court’s Committee on the Business and Chancery Court Rules. She is the Judicial Council’s appointee on the Utah Retirement Systems (URS) Membership Council. She formerly served on the Judicial Council, the Grand Jury Panel, the Utah Bar's New Lawyer Training Program Committee, and the Bar's subcommittee responsible for preparing questions for the landlord/tenant portion of the Licensed Paralegal Practitioner examination. Judge Pettit graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from the University of Northern Iowa, magna cum laude, in 1988 and earned a certificate as a CPA (but did not seek licensing). From 1988-1992 she was an internal auditor for 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. She obtained her law degree from the University of Utah's College of Law in 1995. From 1995-1999, she was a deputy prosecuting attorney for the Ada County Prosecuting Attorney's Office in Boise, Idaho, serving in various capacities, including the misdemeanor, juvenile, child protection, and felony divisions. In December 1999, she joined the law firm of Snow, Christensen & Martineau, where she practiced civil litigation until being appointed to the bench in 2014. Prior to her appointment on the bench, Judge Pettit volunteered with several organizations or projects over the years, including the Ada County Human Rights Task Force, pro bono Guardian Ad Litem program, pro bono Legal Clinic at Guadelupe School, and The Road Home Development Committee. 10/26
